Tag Archives: Cubesats

Update: The launch date has changed. Now the satellites will be launch at the 19th and 20th of November 2013.

With al the attention going towards the Dnepr launch on November 21 we would almost forget that there are a couple of Cubesats onboard the ISS that will be launched also. The launch is planned for November 25. The following satellites will be deployed.

Pico Dragon, developed by the Việtnam National Satellite Center (VNSC), University of Tokyo and IHI aerospace. A CW beacon at 437.250 MHz and 1200 bps AFSK AX.25 telemetry on 437.365 MHz.

TechEdSat-3 developed by interns at the NASA Ames Research Center. 437.465 MHz 1200 bps packet radio beacon transmitting 1 watt to 1/4 wave monopole. It plans to test an Iridium Satphone modem and has a deployment mechanism to de-orbit in 10 days.

These satellites arrived Aug 9, 2013 at the International Space Station’s and the Canadarm2 grapples the unpiloted Japanese “Kounotori” H2 Transfer Vehicle-4 (HTV-4) as it approaches the station, carrying ArduSat-1 and ArduSat-X among 3.6 tons of science experiments.

The rocket will launch the Air Force’s Operationally Responsive Space Office’s ORS-3 mission, which features the deployment of 29 satellites in space. The launch window is 00:30 to 02:30 UTC The backup launch days run through November 26.

The Minotaur’s primary payload is the Space Test Program Satellite-3 (STPSat-3), an Air Force technology-demonstration mission. Thirteen small cubesats aboard are being provided through NASA’s Cubesat Launch Initiative. Among the cubesats is NASA’s Small Satellite Program PhoneSat 2 second generation smartphone mission. Also included is the first cubesat built by high school students.

Live coverage of the launch is available via UStream beginning at 23:30 UTC

It would be great if we have some preliminary TLE data available so we can try and receive the satellites that are part of the NASA Cubesat Launch Initiative.

Thanks to the work of Satou Tetsurou – JA0CAW, we have the following table with known frequencies. If there are errors in it, please let me know via the contact form.

Update: November 17th, 2013 With the help of DK3WN and other helpful radio amateurs the list is updated with new information.

Here some information regarding the upcoming Dnepr launch. At the moment the launch date is set to 21th November 2013. With this launch there will be flying at least two Cubesats with linear transponder functionality. The launch will be done at the Dombarovskiy Launch Site.

At the moment there are some nice blogs that give insides on the flight preparations, one of them is the ISILanch blog from ISIS in The Netherlands. It is nice to see how every thing is going in the cleanroom.

I am trying to keep this list complete and up to date but with this large group of satellites there is always a chance that I made a mistake or missed something. If so, would please inform me via the contact form so I can correct this information.

FUNcube-1 Launch: Date and time confirmed, The launch date of RS-20B rocket (Dnepr) with a group of satellites (DubaiSat-2 cluster mission) from Dombarovsky missile area (Yasny Launch Base) has been established for November 21, 2013 at 07:10:11 UT. The back-up launch date is November 22, 2013 at 07:10:11 UT.

The TLE of the five CubeSats recently launched from ISS are now available with the NORAD registration numbers 1998-067-CN, CP, CQ, CR, CS. 1998 ? Yes as NORAD considers they are parts of the ISS, the first module of which, Zarya, was launched on November 20th 1998 and got the NORAD registration number 1998-067-A.

(J-P/F5YG wrote on amsat-bb) Yesterday evening (Western Europe, around 2130 UTC), I noticed that FITSAT-1 was already about 4 mn before the ISS predictions as this one modified altitude (higher). With a max. elevation angle of 83 deg., we received the 437.250 MHz beacon loud and clear.